Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 6025, a bill to require the Department of Homeland Security to resume reporting operational control as a measure of border security. I thank the gentlelady from Michigan and her staff for working with me on this bill and for bringing it to the floor today. As part of the 2004 Border Strategy, the Border Patrol has been reporting miles of the border under operational or effective control and included it in its annual performance reporting. However, as of fiscal year 2010, the metric has no longer been reported, with the Department instead relying on reporting apprehensions which tell only a part of what's happening at the border and planning for the yet to be rolled out ``Border Condition Index.'' In fact, the Department's recently released 2012-2016 Border Strategy makes no reference to operational control or any other readily reportable metrics to evaluate border security. Far be it from me to ascribe a motive to the situation the Administration has created regarding the border security metrics they are or are not employing, but it certainly looks like they would simply prefer to ignore data that doesn't support their ``border is safer than ever'' narrative. Sadly, for those living in border communities, there is some daylight between that narrative and reality and for that reason I urged the Department to resume using operational control during this year's appropriations process.…”